MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – An environmental technician working for Miami-Dade County is facing six felony charges after police said he demanded $2,000 bribes from at least two restaurant owners under the threat of much larger fines.
Police said they arrested Charles Edward Bryant II, 43, of southwest Miami-Dade, after a sting in the Sunset area Thursday.
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That undercover operation came hours after Bryant was accused of trying to extort the two restaurant owners, who own neighboring establishments in the Sunset West Shopping Center at Southwest 72nd Street and 87th Avenue.
Miami-Dade police said Bryant, working in pollution regulation and enforcement for the county’s Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources, went into Shinju Japanese Buffet Thursday to conduct an inspection.
An arrest report states that he told the owner that he had a leaking grease trap and threatened him with a $50,000 fine.
Bryant, however, made the owner an offer: He’d settle the fine for a $2,000 cash payment, police said.
The owner “reluctantly agreed to pay the fine later in the day once he was able to secure the funds,” the report states.
However, that did not come before the Japanese buffet owner conversed with the owner of Jamaica Kitchen, located in the same plaza, who said Bryant did the same thing at his establishment, according to police.
Police said that the Jamaican restaurant owner complied with the request and went to his bank to withdraw the $2,000, which he was told to drop on the floorboard of Bryant’s county vehicle.
The restaurant owners’ conversation raised their suspicions, leading them to call police at around 1 p.m., the report states.
“Both parties felt they were being targeted and discriminated due to their Asian descent and were victimized due to their race,” detectives wrote.
A Miami-Dade detective quickly arranged a sting operation in which the owner of the Japanese buffet would hand the cash over to Bryant in a back-alley deal.
Police said Bryant arrived at the rear of the strip mall at around 7:45 p.m., the Japanese buffet owner got in his car and gave Bryant the $2,000.
After Bryant counted the bills, the proprietor got out of the car and signaled to detectives that the transaction was complete, the report states.
Police said detectives then moved in to arrest Bryant on two counts each of bribery, unlawful compensation or reward for official behavior and official misconduct.
Bryant, who lives in the Goulds area, was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $12,500 bond, according to jail records.